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Can you die of depression?

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In literary novels it is common to find stories of people who are so sad to have lost the love of their life that they die of grief. His sadness is so great that his body cannot take it anymore and ends up shutting down for no apparent medical cause to explain it.

Stories are stories, but to what extent are they right? After all, in our everyday language there are endless expressions that relate to this belief. Grief seems to be, in addition to being painful, harmful.

Can you die of depression? Can we be so sad that our hearts can't beat anymore? These questions are what we will try to answer below.

  • Related article: "Major Depression: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment"

Can you die of depression?

There are few stories that tell that some people who, after having experienced the loss of someone they love, fell into a deep depression that ended up taking their lives. It is not that it happened that they died because they ended their lives themselves, but that their grief was so great that their body could not take it anymore and they went to the other side, dying of sadness. To what extent do these types of stories have any reason? Can you die of depression?

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Grief and sadness are not direct causes of clinical deathHowever, these emotions, along with others associated with depression, have been related to the possibility that a person organically healthy ends up developing physical health problems such as cardiovascular disease, or stops taking care of themselves and ignores the symptoms of medical diseases serious. In other words, depression can affect us so much that it actually leads us to die, although not directly, of course.

Depression is a very disabling mental disorder, so much so that it causes the sufferer to gradually abandon themselves. People with depression find it difficult to maintain good health habits, such as eating a varied and healthy diet, exercising regularly, or going to their medical appointments. Their disorder can awaken in them a nihilistic feeling of life that, although it does not have to lead to suicide, it does floods your mind with “what for” style thoughts, feeling that striving to preserve your life is not worth it or being less cautious.

In turn, people with chronic or serious physical illnesses are more likely to become depressed, which can cause them not to comply with treatments or to abandon healthy lifestyle habits. Ironically, this abandonment to which patients with serious illnesses are subjected leads to a worsening of their health and, consequently, to higher mortality.

  • You may be interested in: "The role of Psychology in irreversible processes: 5 attitudes to death"

Higher risk in men

In 2020 research published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, it was observed that men between the ages of 18 and 64 have a six times higher risk of death when suffering from depression. In other words, the group most vulnerable to mortality associated with depression are young and middle-aged men, somewhat surprising if one takes into account that women have been the most likely to suffer from this disorder mental.

To say that men are more likely to die from depression is not entirely correct. The long explanation would be that men with depression are at greater risk of dying from this mental disorder, coupled with the conception of how a man should be in Our society means that they do not receive adequate treatment or take care of their own health, which can lead to the time when they suffer from a medical illness that ends their life.

Men receive worse treatment because they are less likely to seek professional help when suffering from depression. Despite the fact that progress has been made in recent decades with regard to the need to take care of mental health, there are not a few men who still have internalized that expressing emotions is a sign of weakness or that going to the psychologist or psychiatrist is “crazy”. There are also toxic ideas of masculinity, such as that men cannot be emotional or require help in this regard.

It is also worth mentioning that depression in men usually has symptoms that do not seem typical of sadness, such as irritability or aggressiveness, which sometimes makes depressive symptoms go unnoticed or is more difficult for health professionals to detect. mental health. Depressed men may have more violent behaviors and addictions than women, which also puts them at higher risk of mortality.

Health problems from depression
  • Related article: "5 examples of gender roles (and their effects on society)"

Relationship between depression and heart disease

In recent years, the relationship between depression and heart disease has been analyzed. The reason it has been decided to address this particular relationship is that heart disease is one of the leading causes of death, and the case that depression alters cardiovascular health would be proof that, although indirectly, this psychological condition can cause death to a person.

Current studies have pointed out that suffering from moderate or severe depression is a risk factor when it comes to suffering from a heart problem, such as heart failure.

As the symptoms of depression worsen, there is an increased risk of developing a heart condition and dying from it. So, what you can die of depression, in the sense that it is the sadness characteristic of this condition that makes us die, is partly true. If the person suffering from depression does not go to a professional, pay attention to the state of her body or monitor her symptoms, it is expected that her life expectancy will gradually decrease.

Over the last decade, various investigations have established a direct connection between hormonal imbalances caused by depression, and different effects it causes on the heart. Apparently, depression increases the release of hormones associated with stress, which induce inflammatory phenomena or atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

Another proof of how depression or, at least, sadness can lead to death in some cases is that there is research that relate the experience of a recent grief to the death of the person experiencing it. After the death of the couple you are more vulnerable, susceptible to heart disease or stroke. This risk is much higher between 14 and 18 days after the death of the loved one.

  • You may be interested in: "The 7 Most Common Types of Cardiovascular Disease (and Symptoms)"

About broken heart syndrome

Broken heart syndrome, also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress-induced cardiomyopathy, is a muscular disorder of the heart that appears after having lived an experience of great emotional distress.

This syndrome can appear in healthy people, without a previous history of heart disease. Although it is a temporary ailment of the heart muscles, it can be serious enough to cause major problems, including death.

Although today it is still a relatively little studied medical condition, relevant data have been found in this regard. It has been seen that about 90% of people affected by broken heart syndrome are elderly women (+66 years old). The third age is the period of life in which there is the greatest possibility of losing a spouse and, if we combine this with the fact that women have greater life expectancy, it is usual for them to be the widows, having to go through the mourning of having lost the husband.

However, this should not make us fall into the error of thinking that younger men and people cannot suffer from this problem. Anyone is sensitive to having Takotsubo disease; As long as you have had a highly stressful and depressing experience, you can be prone to developing this condition.

The symptoms associated with broken heart syndrome is similar to that of myocardial infarction, and they are as follows:

  • Chest pain
  • Trouble breathing
  • Hypotension
  • Arrhythmia
  • Fainting or collapsing

It must be said that these symptoms are not usually fatal, although if they are serious they can end the life of the patient. In fact, only 10% of patients with Takotsubo have a real risk of dying, especially if they have symptoms such as severe hypotension, decreased consciousness, and pulmonary edema. Be that as it may, being caused by an emotionally tense situation, in which there may be depressive symptoms, is another link between depression and death.

The cause of this condition is not known for sure.. The main theory that we have today would be that a large amount of stress-related hormones are released into the bloodstream after having experienced an emotionally disturbing situation, which can affect the integrity of the heart tissue and cause symptoms of the syndrome. Stress hormones would cause the arteries of the heart to build, increasing the risk of presenting an ischemia of the heart muscle and originating the symptoms of the cardiomyopathy.

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